2022 Goodbyes Included Closing of Garfield School

As we look back on some “goodbyes” that were said in 2022, a lot of the emphasis continues to be on school buildings.  Yesterday we looked at the Runyans and the Roselawn Fitness Center they ran for many years at the Roselawn School Building.  Today, we go just down the street a bit from there, to the now closed Garfield School.  Although the building remains up, for storage use by Danville District 118, the classrooms are now silent.

Cannon School is torn down, which we will talk about in the next installment of this series.  But in April of this year, District 118 Superintendent Dr. Alicia Geddis said she did not want Garfield to become a situation like Cannon, where the closed building sits empty doing nothing and deteriorates.  So the idea was, keep it busy, and use it for storage.  But when residents asked “please try to keep it open,” Dr. Geddis said having people in this building on a daily basis was no longer feasible.

AUDIO: That boiler in that building is cemented into the wall.  Those classrooms, 98 degrees, melting the crayons.  The food service staff admitted to me: when they come in every morning, they push that water out that comes up from the bottom and then they put the mats down.  Unacceptable.

It was Assistant Superintendent John Hart who said that using Garfield for storage made fine sense, because the old district warehouse on Jackson Street was becoming inadequate.

AUDIO: By re-purposing Garfield we’d have more space to be able to house some of those materials.  We are in the middle of a great many construction projects.  We have materials coming in.  And some materials we get today; and the rest of the materials we need to proceed may not come in for six, nine, 12, 18 months.  And so we need a place to stage some of those materials as well.

Just the same, when the time came at the start of June for Garfield to stop teaching for good, sentimentality came from all directions, including principal Nicole Zaayer.

AUDIO:  ‘’Three and four generations of families. I had talked before about my mom and my aunts and uncles attending school here and growing up on Chandler (Street), but we’ve had so many generations of families come through here.  They say ‘my grandchild goes to school here – and I went to school here’, and their parents went to school here. So definitely generations of families that have come through Garfield.’’

At the final tribute, Garfield alumni poured over hundreds of old photos of classes and school events over the past 100 years. Outside, students were enjoying bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and face painting.  Garfield alumnus Susan Willaman summed it up.

“I’m past PTA president, I taught school here. I was a T.A. (teaching assistant) here. I coached basketball, and I coached volleyball. And…it’s hard. I’ve cried numerous times that they’re closing it. However, I can say I’m glad that they’re going to save the school and at least use it for a purpose.’’ 

Principal Nicole Zaayer (on left) and Garfield music teacher Joe Legg sell Garfield cups and other items during the tribute.

Our final look at “2002 Goodbyes involving schools” will take a look at what was the biggest blow of the year for so many: The tear down of Cannon School